Album Reviews

Far from the sad, wobbly finale you might be expecting, these last to be released Johnny Cash recordings are uplifting, inspirational and resolutely purposeful thanks to both Cash’s searing artistry and the sensitivity of the A&R work.

The song selection is a playlist of life-reminiscences and reaffirmations of faith that draws from both popular and religious sources. Cash looks back on his life and forward to what he is certain is the next step in life’s journey.

Far from the sad, wobbly finale you might be expecting, these last to be released Johnny Cash recordings are uplifting, inspirational and resolutely purposeful thanks to both Cash’s searing artistry and the sensitivity of the A&R work.

The song selection is a playlist of life-reminiscences and reaffirmations of faith that draws from both popular and religious sources. Cash looks back on his life and forward to what he is certain is the next step in life’s journey.

Clearly Cash’s faith followed him to the end and gave him the strength not just to persevere and see this work to completion, but to do it with a depth and intensity that few artists ever achieve, never mind at a time when one’s physical powers are waning.

All of the songs here as well as those on 2006’s American V: A Hundred Highways were recorded after the completion in 2002 of the well-receivedAmerican IV: The Man Comes Around and Cash’s passing on September 13th 2003.

The album opens with the brutally stark but never morbid title song, the first line of which is “There ain’t no grave can hold my body down.” That’s followed by a deeply reflective version of Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Song” that veers sharply between the earthly and bitter and bouyant optimism.

Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” moves beyond its original love-lost meaning to a much deeper place given June Carter’s passing during the recording sessions and only four months before Cash’s death.

Other familiar, deftly placed songs include Ed McCurdy’s oft-covered wish for peace “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” and “Satisfied Mind,” popularized by The Byrds so many years ago.

The album ends on a surprisingly sublime, soaring note on the wings of the familiar, wistful Hawaiian farewell song “Aloha Oe” that ends with the line “until we meet again.”

You’re sure to come away from your first listen to this set inspired, refreshed and filled with a sense of well-being, appreciative of Cash’s life well-lived and his many decades of artistry. If you’re of the age where you remember hearing and being moved by the dark, resoluteness of “I Walk the Line” when it was first issued and you stayed tuned, you’ve got a lot of Cash to consider.

The backup musicians play with reverence and great sensitivity, and the recording, produced at Rick Rubin’s Akadamie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research in Los Angeles and at Cash Cabin Studio in Henderson, Tennessee, is delicate, deep, warm and intimate. Cash’s voice is rendered round, three dimensional and life-like.

Usually, final sessions like this from revered artists go beyond sad to the realm of pathetic. That’s not the case here. In fact, of all the American Recordings, this may be the most affecting and special.

According to Rubin, during this period “Johnny said that recording was his main reason for being alive. I think it was the only thing that kept him going.”

This album will be released on February 26th, 2010, which would have been Johnny Cash's 78th birthday. In his honor, Cash's family and friends ask everyone to wear black.